Convention Day

Well yesterday was quite fantastic! I felt very official, traveling to the city with all these old folks. Okay, I slept most of the way. Gotta build up that energy! So after a bit of confusion as to where to get our badges (we signed up late so we weren't at the regular registration booth), we began our wandering about. The place was huge! There were three separate buildings to choose from - two related to semiconductors and wafer management and one related to solar technology. We decided to start with semiconductors. All the booths were fantastic. There's things being invented and used that I didn't even realize there would ever be a need for! There was a whole booth on ceramic gears, nuts and bolts, etc. Another booth featuring laser etching was giving away pens with one's name on it as a demo; I got one for Alex, I thought he'd get a kick out of it. Many companies even had lounges set up for their employees and the people running their booth. Ours did, but we never really got a chance to hang out there. There were also a bunch of meeting rooms set up. We thought they were for the companies to have meeting with customers or other companies, and in fact we saw our head of marketing heading into the meeting area in the afternoon. After lunch at a great Thai place just a block away, we headed over to the solar exhibits. The stuff there was so amazing! I can't believe so much has been done for solar power in the past few years. The booths displayed anything and everything related to solar, including machines to build the struts that hold up the panels, to combining solar panels and wind turbines, to machines that were created to turn panels as the sun moves based on longtitude and lattitude of the panel's location. My company's booth was really cool as well, and even had a little touch screen quiz about solar power and the company's involvement in the field - if you took it, you entered to win a Wii!
I also got to go with two coworkers, Juan and Luke. I didn't realize before that they were closer to my age. Though older, Juan is even a college intern! We got along great, and had a really fun day. I also noticed that they were both very polite, pretty into fashion, and chivalrous. It's nice to see that maybe once men "grow up" and get jobs, they're not all college alcoholics. I don't mean to generalize about all men my age, obviously there are great guys out there. I just think it's funny that they started a debate about whether a man's Louis Vuitton bag was authentic before I even noticed it. It's nice to finally be able to feel a bit more welcome and social in the office.
Overall, I had a great day, and am very glad I didn't pass up this opportunity. Perhaps sales might be something I'd like to get involved in in the future!